Nutrition + Exercise = Results
-UBC director
To achieve maximum fitness, both nutrition and exercise must go together. Many people do well sticking to their nutritional plan, but slack off on their workouts. Others love to exercise, but don’t watch what they eat. One without the other doesn’t add up.
Tips:
1. Track your intake: Studies show that those who track what they eat consistently lose more weight and maintain that weight loss far better than those who don’t. Tracking points in your UBC manual, or keeping some form of food log is crucial for success. Accountability to yourself!
2. Food Availability: We all have moments of vulnerability when we crave certain foods and can be tempted to eat (like late at night after seeing one of those diabolic pizza commercials!) If you know your favorite trigger foods are in the house, sooner or later you’ll eat them. Don’t keep unhealthy foods in your house.
3. Hydration: Drink lots of water. This helps satiate your appetite and helps your energy level.
4. Intensity: You must exercise with great intensity. With regular exercise we “condition” our bodies to be stronger and endure more. Once our muscles become conditioned to the demands we put on them, much less energy is required to repeat the same effort. So we must continually ask our muscles to do more than they want to do. When we push our muscles to the point of fatigue, the body not only grows stronger, but also begins burning unwanted fat for energy. Whether you are using resistance bands, free weights, or doing fitness kickboxing class, always try to push yourself to the highest level of exertion, even if only for a few seconds. Push yourself intensely for short intervals during the kickboxing classes. If you can do the repetitions with one band, move to the next color. Doing five difficult pushups on your toes is better than doing 20 easy ones on your knees. Remember, “You can do anything for 10 seconds”.